I was at every local training camp practice. There are two specific drills for this.

One drill is where D-backs line up 10 yds from the coach and run at him. The football is thrown at the D-back as he is running towards the coach. The ball is thrown at different angles.

The other drill is the tip drill. It is taught to our D-backs. Sharper and Sammy Knight are anomalies. They just have a knack for finding the ball. If all D-backs could do that, we wouldn't praise the ones that stand out.

It is a difficult thing to coach. It is even more difficult to identify the D-backs that can make it happen.

I was thinking and going to say the exact same thing. Do people honestly think these guys aren't doing there tip drills and working with the jug machine?

Guys like Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard shot thousands of free throws a day... they still don't make them.

This plays right into the teaching, and working on skills even with tackling its not going on at practice.

I am also noticing the drop INT's because in 09 those INT's were differet variety. Sharper was sitting back there and jumping the routes, our DB's also jumped a lot more routes perhaps the fact they knew Sharper, their leader was back their behind them and trusted they had their back.

Our drops are coming off the CB's giving chase and not in the same positions or situations as they were in 09.

If 20+ years of pee-wee, high school, college, and ultimately pro fooball can't teach you how to catch a football, a bye-week isn't going to solve it.

Even still, I am always shocked at how someone who plays professional football, especially a receiver or a DB, can't learn how to catch after so many years of playing the game. I never thought of catching a football as something like calculus-based physics, where some people can learn it and some can't. It's a damn football and should be something you can get better at with practice, but I'm now convinced that I'm wrong, some people have it and some don't.